That's a pretty thing, Jeri! I wonder how many of these mystery roses are seedlings and how many are subtle sports.

Good question, Paul! This guy fought in the Civil war. His mother's maiden name was Orange -- so she was of the House or Orange -- I think he was raised in Ohio. He came out here during the Gold Rush . . . So, either sport or seedling is possible.

When you find a rose in a cemetery like that, you always wonder.

So beautiful and interesting.

Here's a vote for seedling based not on the rose but on geography. His being from Ohio is now and was then a real limiting factor called winter survival.

A sport isn't likely to have sported different chemical composition, different enough to survive winter. The one Old Blush I found in a colder cemetery (on a hill top in a city in Virginia was holding on , but not doing well. It's indistinguishable from my other Old BLushes, but reacts the same to my variable winters.

A seedling may have picked something up from a colder hardy parent that made it desirable in Ohio.

Visiting the Lanier House Gardens in Madisonville Indiana, I found roses surviving there and being replaced as needed by the gardener. BUT, that garden is down by the Ohio River and the cold winds from Canada that come straight down, don't fill the valley , they just keep on into Kentucky. Morning fogs also protect there.

stillanntn6b - I think this rose was found in California, not Ohio (Jeri just said above she thought the man it is named after was born in Ohio, but "came out here during the Gold Rush". The grave they found it on was, accd to HMF, in the Sierra foothills in CA by a CA based rose group.

Jackie

Right. Orange Smith was from Ohio. But he came to CA after the Civil War, and lived here until he died. It'd be my best guess that the rose was obtained here.